rss What’s that spider?
Location: El Monte, CA
October 30, 2011 12:33 am
A small spider outside my window. Curious to learn what species.
Thanks Bugman!!
Signature: Arachnophobic Arachnophile
Western Spotted Orbweaver
Dear Arachnophobic Arachnophile,
You are such a contradiction in terms. We believe your spider is a Western Spotted Orbweaver, Neoscona oaxacensis, and you can verify that by comparing your individual to photos posted to BugGuide.
Western Spotted Orbweaver
Foodchain, Spider and Fly
Location: Queensland. Australia
October 29, 2011 9:58 pm
Hi guys,
Thought you might like this picture for your food chain pages. A tiny immature Dolomedes Instabilis has caught itself an Austrosciapus connexus, one of the Long Legged Flys. The fly is about 6mm long.
Signature: Aussietrev
Water Spider eats Long Legged Fly
Hi Trevor,
We greatly appreciate that you take the time to identify your creatures prior to submitting photos, which makes posting your submissions so easy. According to the Find a Spider Guide for the Spiders of Southern Queensland website, Dolomedes instabilis is commonly called a Water Spider and their habitat is “On the surface of still-water ponds; this spider has the ability to run on water surfaces and to form underwater retreats in large air bubbles, although some pisaurids make their webs in green leaves or small twigs of shrubs and may never have occasion to ‘walk on water.’” The Brisbane Insect website has some wonderful photos and indicates the common name is Fishing Spider like its North American relatives. The Brisbane Insect website also indicates the common name of Austrosciapus connexus is the Green Long Legged Fly.
I’m freaked out. There were two of them.
Location: Souther California
October 27, 2011 9:41 pm
I just moved to L.A. I didn’t have much furniture so I ran to the Goodwill and grabbed a rolling cabinet for the kitchen. That was last week. And today I was greeted by two of these terrifying creatures. I’ve been searching and searching online and am beginning to get suspicious. Some places say it’s harmless, some say it’s an immature female black widow. What is it?? Can it hurt my cat?
A picture of its top and its bottom.
Signature: Freaking Out
Immature Black Widow
Dear Freaking Out,
This is an immature Black Widow, most likely the Western Black Widow. They are quite common in Southern California. They are not aggressive. They rarely leave their webs.
Immature Black Widow
Orange brain bum spider
Location: Ottawa, ON
October 26, 2011 11:17 pm
Hi! I’m in Ottawa, Ontario and found this spider lolly-gagging out my front door. It’s about 3 degrees celsius tonight and it was moving incredibly slow, so I scooped it up and took some photos.
I’ve never seen a spider like this around my house. He has a bright vibrant orange spot on his abdomen, and i.m.o. the whole back end looks vaguely brain like. It was biggish (about the size of a toonie). Even though winter will be settling in, I let him go in my front garden.
Please help me identify, I haven’t had much luck searching myself!
Signature: Finnegan
Orbweaver
Hi Finnegan,
This is a harmless Orbweaver in the genus Araneus.
Oh wow, thanks for the quick reply! Although spiders sometimes give me the willies, they can be rather beautiful in their own creepy crawly kind of way. Will look up more info on orb weavers just for fun. Great website, love it!
Rain spider rescue
Location: Northern suburbs, Gauteng, South Africa
October 21, 2011 5:31 am
Hi WTB
We were helping clean out a house this weekend when someone spotted this beautiful lady… luckily I was able to rescue her and her nest before she was hurt.
From what I can tell, she’s a huntsman spider (called rain spiders here in South Africa), species Palystes Castaneus – would like to know if I’m right though?
Signature: Twistedlizzard
Rain Spider
Hi Twistedlizzard,
We agree that this is a Huntsman Spider, and though we were not familiar with the Rain Spider, Palystes castaneus, our research led us to the Biodiversity Explorerwebsite which tends to indicate you identification is correct. We also are amused with the common name of Lizard Eating Spider for this species. The website states: “These spiders were previously listed as potentially dangerous. After tests where they were induced into biting guinea-pigs it was established that although the guinea-pigs had died within 3 minutes, it had been from shock and not the effects of any venom. For humans, the venom is in fact no worse than a bee sting although the spider’s aggressive display, with its 2 front pairs of banded legs raised in warning, is enough to shrink the stoutest of hearts. They occur usually in vegetation but sometimes occur in the home.”
Rain Spider
Orb Weaver catches Caterpillar in her web and encases it in silk.
Location: Cheney Kansas
October 17, 2011 8:16 pm
I rescued this spider at work from being chopped up by my weed wacker. I took it home and set it free in the garden.
The next day I searched the garden to see if she would cast her web in my yard . I found her Web and she had already caught several moths and was in the process of taking care of a White Lined Sphinx Caterpillar.
I’ve included several photos and you can really see in detail how she uses her spinneret to encase her future meal.
Signature: Chris Harris
Banded Orbweaver
Hi Chris,
Thanks so much for sending us your wonderful photos of a Banded Orbweaver eating a White Lined Sphinx Caterpillar.
Banded Orbweaver eats White Lined Sphinx Caterpillar
We don’t believe caterpillars are a typical prey for Orbweavers that tend to snare flying or hopping insects.
Banded Orbweaver eats White Lined Sphinx
Well hello…
Location: Corpus Christi, TX
October 17, 2011 3:28 am
This colorful spider made a large web on the porch. I’m from Washington State visiting Corpus Christi so I’m not used to seeing spiders like this. It was pretty large and moved quickly (saw it scurrying across the deck later that day). Can you identify it? Is it venomous?
Signature: Scott
Silver Argiope
Hi Scott,
Your spider is a Silver Argiope, Argiope argentata, one of the Orbweavers. Nearly all spiders have venom, but very few spiders have venom that is considered toxic to humans. We are less and less inclined to claim, as we once did, that a species is perfectly harmless, because for most people peanuts are perfectly harmless, though there are growing numbers of children with peanut allergies. The same may hold true for spider venom, and a person with a highly allergic reaction may be in grave danger after a bite that for most people is a slight annoyance. Orbweavers are very reluctant to bite, but that does not mean they will not bite.
red-legged Nephila image on Google Image search results
October 14, 2011 10:18 am
I’m going to guess that this is NOT the sort of question that normally interests you guys, but I’m running into some odd (I think) data manipulation with regard to my image, and Nephila rufapoda in general. If you don’t mind, I’m going to send you a second image of the same red-legged Nephila from Taiwan. If you decide to publish that and comment on it, then I would expect it to turn up in Google Image search results -as did the first image of the same spider. It would be interesting to find out whether or not the image was subsequently removed.
I’m not usually like this, by the way. This is my first internet mystery.
Signature: Dane Harris
unidentified species of Nephila
Location: Taiwan
October 14, 2011 10:24 am
I have a second picture of that unidentified Nephila species from Taiwan. My friend Thomas Evjue has pointed out that the pedipalps on the critter in my picture are red, whereas the pedipalps in the only picture of Nephila rufapoda are black after the first joint. Is that enough of a difference to denote a different species, or could the difference be explained by geographic isolation?
Signature: Dane Harris
Golden Silk Spider
Hi again Dane,
We cannot say for certain if this is Nephila rufopoda, a subspecies or a different species. Thanks for sending another photo to accompany your previous photo.
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